Nelson Mandela is hugged by U2 lead singer Bono at the 46664 benefit concert

The U2 frontman reacted to Mandela's passing today (December 5) by praising the former leader's fight against apartheid and global poverty in an essay for Time.

Bono wrote: "Mandela saw extreme poverty as a manifestation of the same struggle. 'Millions of people … are trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set them free,' he said in 2005. 'Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome… Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great. You can be that great generation'.

"It certainly fell to Mandela to be great. His role in the movement against extreme poverty was critical. He worked for a deeper debt cancellation, for a doubling of international assistance across sub-Saharan Africa, for trade and private investment and transparency to fight corruption. Without his leadership, would the world over the past decade have increased the number of people on AIDS medication to 9.7 million and decreased child deaths by 2.7 million a year?"

He continued: "Without Mandela, would Africa be experiencing its best decade of growth and poverty reduction? His indispensability can't be proved with math and metrics, but I know what I believe."

Bono also credited Mandela with changing the African continent's destiny through his commitment to equality.

"Mandela would be remembered as a remarkable man just for what happened - and didn't happen - in South Africa's transition," the Irish musician wrote.

"But more than anyone, it was he who rebooted the idea of Africa from a continent in chaos to a much more romantic view, one in keeping with the majesty of the landscape and the nobility of even its poorer inhabitants.

"He was also a hardheaded realist, as his economic policy demonstrated. To him, principles and pragmatism were not foes; they went hand in hand. He was an idealist without naiveté, a compromiser without being compromised."